Home Interest Deduction Interview

For enter the final balance of your loan at the time of pay-off in the filed above for December 31 value, you should put the balance that you owed before the loan was refinanced.

For When did you make your final payment, you would put the date that the new bank paid the first loan off and then gave YOU the new loan.

Take a look at your 1098 forms to see whether you need to enter the acquisition or origination dates.

The mortgage origination date (Box 3) on Form 1098 is the date on which the loan is funded, usually the date you closed on the property and signed the mortgage deed.  It's the date the mortgage originated with the original lender. 

The mortgage acquisition date (Box 11) is the date that the reporting lender acquired the mortgage. 

If you have to enter multiple 1098 forms, please read the following for important information:

How do I handle multiple 1098 mortgage forms?

If you have multiple 1098 mortgage forms, you’ll enter them one at a time. After going through the steps with the first one, you can add a lender when you get to the Mortgage deduction summary screen. (In the case of a refinance, it's best to enter the 1098 from your original loan before the 1098 from your refinance.)

But, if they're both from the same lender, and one of them has the “Corrected” checkbox marked at the top, enter the corrected 1098 and discard or shred the other one.

What do I do if I have multiple 1098s from refinancing my home debt?

If your total home debt is under $375,000 ($250,000 for married filing separate) there is nothing new for you to do in 2020. Enter each 1098 as you normally would.

Home Debt Over $375,000

Under tax law, you are limited on the amount of home interest you can deduct. The limit is based on the loan amount and date of the origination of debt. We want to make sure we calculate this correctly for you. 

If you refinanced last year, you’ll have a Form 1098 from your previous lender and one from the lender you refinanced with. You’ll need both forms. 

Follow these steps to enter your mortgage information:

1. Gather all of your 1098 forms related to your refinance (the form from your original lender and the form from your new lender)
2. Grab a calculator and add together the box 1 amount from each form. Enter the total in TurboTax as Box 1 Mortgage interest.
3. Add the Box 5 amount from each form and enter the total as Box 5 Mortgage insurance premiums. (If you weren’t required to pay mortgage interest, these boxes will be blank on your forms and you won’t enter anything.)
4. Add the property tax paid from each form and enter it in the Property (real estate) taxes box.

Next, finish adding info for boxes 2, 3, 7, and 11 using Form 1098 for the original loan.

What if I have more than two 1098s?

You should combine all of the 1098s directly related to the refinance and enter it as one 1098.  An example of this is if you refinanced two loans into one loan. Any 1098s not directly related to the refinance should get entered separately.

What if I paid points?

Points on Loans Paid Off in 2020: Enter the points on your 1098 you have started and mark you paid off the loan when promoted.

Points on Loans on New Loans: You will want to enter a separate 1098 to cover these points paid. When prompted, enter 0.00 for Boxes 1, 2, 5, and the Property (real estate) taxes box, and checkbox 7, as you’ve already entered the details on your first 1098. For Box 3, add the date in 2020 when the loan originated.

It is still not clear for me what the answer is to, "When did you make your final payment?"

B)  The origination date of the next loan (box 3).    (12/01/2020)
C)  The acquisition date of the next loan (box 11).   (12/7/2020)